“Indians,” “Braves,” and “Redskins”: A performative struggle for control of an image

Abstract

Native American groups across the country have been protesting the use of their symbols and heritage in sports arenas for over a decade. Yet, particularly in the realm of professional sports, these protests have not generated significant changes in attitudes and practices. This critical essay examines several Native American protest events to reveal the factors contributing to the failure of the reform movement and to suggest some strategies for rhetorically reformulating the campaign.

Contradicting Coach or Grumbling to Teammates

“…protests (Power, 2011), and the participation in nontraditional sports as a mechanism for producing alternative sporting discourses (Atkinson, 2009). In addition, the entity of sport has been the target of dissent on many occasions including but not limited to issues related to the use of Native American mascots (Miller, 1999), the environmental impact of sport (Barnes, 2009), and athlete misbehavior (Dimitrov, 2008). While these approaches have been helpful in furthering an understanding of how sport serves as a location and at times a platform for the expression of dissent they have overshadowed the possibility of exploring the very nature of power embedded within the coach-athlete relationship as an additional locus of dissent within the context of sport.…”

“Legal or illegal? Documented or undocumented?” The struggle over Brookhaven'sneighborhood preservation act

“…Too many elements or too much emphasis on one particular tactic can have a negative effect on the rhetorical efficacy of a protest. For instance, Miller (1999) notes that during the 1995 World Series a group of Native American protesters gathered outside of Atlanta's Fulton County Stadium in an attempt to "heighten fan awareness of the inappropriateness of dressing up as Indians to support their teams" (p. 194). Some of these protesters donned costumes like entertainer Al Jolson in black face, a Ku Klux Klansman, a Jewish man carrying money, and even the Pope.…”

Whiners Go Home

“…Sports perform a ritualistic function in society, operating as a potent and visible cultural arena where normative conceptions of race, class, gender, and nationalism are celebrated, reinforced, and occasionally contested (Miller, 1999). Furthermore, sports commemorate and reinforce the espoused virtues of capitalism, often behind a veneer of patriotism, militarism, and American exceptionalism that equates democracy with the private individual's ''freedom'' to choose within the market (Butterworth, 2010;Jhally, 1989Jhally, /2006.…”

“…As Whannel (1983) suggests, ''sport offers a way of seeing the world'' and that ''it is part of the system of ideas that supports, sustains, and reproduces capitalism'' by making it appear ''natural, correct, and inevitable'' (p. 27). Tough Mudder is not exempt from the rhetorical construction of identity around sport, embodied performance, and consumption and thus serves as a cultural ritual in which dominant ideologies regarding race, gender, and social class are expressed, naturalized, and reinforced as common sense (Miller, 1999). Specifically for our purposes here, we suggest that the popularity of the Tough Mudder, both domestically and globally, is explained by its ability to position itself as a cultural ritual in capitalist socialization.…”